Ground Broken On Nursing-School of Professional Counseling Building

Ground is broken on the Nursing-School of Professional Counseling Building, the
footprint of which can be seen in the background. From left: LWC President William T.
Luckey Jr., Vice President for Academic Affairs Bettie Starr, nursing student Dorothy
Karcher of Worthville, Ky., LWC Nursing Chair Suzette Scheuermann, Kentucky Board
of Nursing member Elizabeth Partin of Columbia and LWC School of Professional
Counseling Dean John Rigney.

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- The Lindsey Wilson College community broke ground on a new academic building on Friday afternoon that will help meet Southcentral Kentucky's health needs.

The 26,000-square-foot, two-story building will house the college's nursing program and nationally accredited School of Professional Counseling. It will be ready for the 2011-12 school year.

Because the building will be opened in a little more than eight months, some of its foundation work has already taken place.

"We thought we should have a groundbreaking before the bricks actually go up," Lindsey Wilson President William T. Luckey Jr. said at the ceremony.

Friday afternoon's ceremony was the sixth groundbreaking the LWC community has celebrated in the last 31 months as the college's A.P. White Campus has experienced its most aggressive expansion in the college's 107-year history.

"That is unheard of -- in this economy or any other economy, for that matter," Luckey said. "There are some colleges that don't break ground on a new building every five years, and we've been doing it (on average) every five months."

By housing the college's nursing program -- the only four-year nursing program in Southcentral Kentucky -- with the nationally accredited School of Professional Counseling, LWC is making a statement about its commitment to meeting the region's health needs, Luckey said.

"The thing that pleases me the most is that it is a building where we will be changing lives, probably more than any other place on this campus when you think about the students that come through that building -- the helping profession with SPC and our nursing students," Luckey said. "That's the thing that thrills me so much."

Among the building's features will be interactive classrooms that will provide nursing majors with cutting-edge technology and technological innovations that will help the School of Professional Counseling work with its 25 locations in five states.

LWC Nursing Chair Suzette Scheuermann said the new building will play a role in shaping the profession in Southcentral Kentucky.

"Our nursing history is rich with moments like these before us, which have changed the path of a profession," Scheuermann said. "Today we share a moment in time to prepare for those future nurses who will embark from this very spot to also make a difference in the nursing profession."

School of Professional Counseling Dean John Rigney said the new building will open up a host of opportunities for his program, the largest academic program at the college. The program is accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs, the accrediting arm of the American Counseling Association.

"This will allow an enhanced visibility for this program and for the nursing program," Rigney said. "It will have vastly improved instruction opportunities … for conferences and the technology that will be part of that building will help us reach out even further."

(Click here to see pictures from the groundbreaking ceremony.) 

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